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Good morning, everyone. Happy New Year again.

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It is, if you will believe me, still Christmas.

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Hell yeah. So even though we turned a new calendar page and it is 2025,

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some of us are having a very hard time with that.

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Some of us are having a hard time grasping the fact that we are a quarter of the way

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into the 2000s when those same sums of us feel like Y2K was like a minute ago.

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Time is weird. However, in regard to the church calendar, we are still in

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Christmas and so you may remember a few weeks ago as we were wrapping up Advent,

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I mentioned that though Christmas Day is the 25th of December, the season of

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Christmas is the extending 12 days from that and so the season of Christmas

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officially ends on January 6th, which this year falls tomorrow on Monday and

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that is Epiphany. And it is the day within the church year that we recognize

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that the visit of the Magi or the Wisemen to Jesus was the revelation of

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Christ to the Gentiles and not just the Jews but that Christ came for all the

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world. And so Advent recognizes that hope and peace and joy and love have come.

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Christ has come to be the light for all.

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Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word. Grant

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that this light and kindle in our hearts may shine forth in our own lives. Through

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Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you the Father in the unity

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of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen. So why do we observe the

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church year here? It is not scriptural but it carries us through the narrative

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of Scripture. Emily Hunter McGowan says in her book about Christmas, so there's

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this really great little series called the Fullness of Time series. I just am

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about to start on the Epiphany book but I worked through Advent this year, working

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through Christmas because it's not over yet, and we'll go, we'll start with

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Epiphany tomorrow. There is one for Lent and Easter and Pentecost as well. But in

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her book about Christmas she says that despite the sentimentality surrounding

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Christmas, its focus and the focus of the whole liturgical calendar is the triune

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God. To give ourselves the observance of the church year is to give ourselves an

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education, a formative submersion into the Trinity. So each season reveals

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something more of God's truth, goodness, and beauty. And so in Advent and then

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Christmas we enter the story of Jesus who came to be God among us here on earth

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and to reveal the goodness of the Father to us. Further along in the church year

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we observe Lent and Easter, a season of sacrifice, and then because of sacrifice

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50 days later we celebrate the event of Pentecost when the promised Holy Spirit

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was poured out, evidenced as tongues of fire onto those that gathered. The church

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year ends the Sunday before Advent, sometime in late November when we

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celebrate Christ the King who has reconciled all things and people to

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himself and to God. So as I said it's not scriptural, the church year is not

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scriptural, but it is the practice of the narrative and the story and immersing

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ourselves in the story of Scripture and who the triune God is. It's the narrative

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and we are invited to participate in the full oneness of God. So we are starting

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a series today on the Trinity, the theological idea that God is not

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one-dimensional, that the God of the Old Testament or Hebrew scriptures and

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Jesus and that the Holy Spirit are all one. And much like the church calendar

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there is no explicit identification of the word Trinity in the Bible. Nowhere

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does it say that word, however the evidence that Jesus and God the Father

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and the Holy Spirit understood themselves to be one is continual throughout. So

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let's pray. Jesus thank you so much for the diversity of who you are and the

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fact that you invite us into presence with you in your fullness and in your

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oneness as God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Spirit. We are grateful that

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invitation is for all and so help us say yes to that into the fullness of who you

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are, not just part of you but all of you and help us hear from you today. Amen. So

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as I said we are in the year 2025 still having a hard time with that but we are

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loosely 2,000 years out from the birth of Christ. Roughly the first quarter of

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the time of the church in the last 2,000ish years, so 500 years the first

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quarter, was the church wrestling over how to understand what the church was,

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what to what it was to be in the world, what it was to teach, how to talk about

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it, how to meaningfully standardize the way that the church would equip and

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disciple believers. A lot of it was amazing, a lot of it was hard, a lot of it

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was a lot of quietly faithful people going into all the earth making disciples

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and a lot of it was empirical tactics of oppression. It was all of it and

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because only a few people wrote some things about God over down over about

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God wrote things down about God over time and then others wrote some other

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things down in other places at other times and some people felt some of it

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was really valid and others didn't and so there were those that had to travel

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long distances to meet and discuss and to study and pray to come up with what

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the church was meant to be and what believing in Jesus looked like in a

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fraught time. What was non-negotiable and what wasn't? Because Jesus did not just

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simply go up to heaven and sweep the floor of the place that he said he was

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gonna go to prepare for you when he ascended into heaven as I go and prepare

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a place for you. He did not just go and make sure that there were clean sheets

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on the bed and turn around and decent as the early church expected him to. He as

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far as we know has not come back yet and so after a period of time those early

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church believers they had to talk about some things. They had to figure some things

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out and the idea of the Trinity was key among them. What do we do with these

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things? The earliest Christians had to cope with the implications of the

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return of Jesus when it was happening or was it for them in their lifetime and of

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the presumed presence and power of God among them. The Holy Spirit whose coming

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was connected with a celebration of Pentecost, the Father, the Son, and the

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Holy Spirit became an interconnected team with Jesus and the community of the

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Apostles associated in such New Testament passages as the Great

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Commission. Matthew 28 19, go therefore and make disciples of all nations

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baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

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and that is the practice we have preserved today. In what we call the

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apostolic benediction, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and

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the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Second Corinthians 13 13. Thus

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the New Testament established the basis for the doctrine of the Trinity. It

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wasn't something that they could just ignore and be like, oh no, decide what you

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want, whatever's good. Because the questions were, was Jesus lesser than the

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Father? Was the Holy Spirit lesser than Jesus? Or because the Holy Spirit was

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powerful, does it mean that the Holy Spirit is better or carries more weight?

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Or I've got the Spirit but you don't have the Spirit so I'm better. Like what

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do we do with this? What do we do with God, Yahweh, of the Hebrew Scriptures?

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Because now that not just Jews who studied those scriptures and had that

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history, but now Gentiles who had the words of Jesus that they were clinging

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to and the letters of the Apostles and the addition of the Holy Spirit. They all

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had to ask questions. Is one greater than the other or what do we do with all of

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this? God said we must worship no other gods but Jesus is God now? Or he said I

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am and the Father are one? What a time. So the church was also being widely

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dispersed in the early years. The message was going far and it was being absorbed

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by an incredibly and wonderfully diverse and truly universal population. It was

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like playing a giant game of telephone though. What, how do we keep the true

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things true? How do we keep the core things core? How do we keep the stories

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faithful and develop a central Orthodox understanding? Do you see why it was so

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important for the church to spend so much time wrestling through this? And so

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it was not until later in the fourth century that the distinctness of the

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three and their unity were brought together in a single Orthodox aligned

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doctrine of one essence and three persons. The Council of Nicaea met over

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the course of a number of months in what is modern-day Isnik Turkey in the year

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325. It developed a creed, a doctrinal statement of Orthodox or aligned belief

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among Christians that stated the crucial formula for that doctrine in its

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confession that the Son is of the same substance as the Father. Over the next

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half century St. Athanasius defended and refined the Nicaean

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formula and by the end of the fourth century under the leadership of St.

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Basil of Caesarea, I know these names don't feel important but it's good to

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hear them every now and then because these were people who committed

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themselves. They committed themselves to the trueness of the story that we now

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have. And so the doctrine of the Trinity substantially took the form it has

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maintained ever since and it is what we say together here every fifth Sunday. We

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say this together now. Has anyone ever read the book The Shack before? It is

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beautiful and after my dear friend Matt Pottwhite read it he noted that it is a

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book about God's relationship with himself. I loved that. That was a great

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insight. In Genesis 1 we see an illustration of how to think about this

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verse 26 and one says then God said let us make mankind in our image, in our

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likeness. The translation choice of us coming from a plural reference as if in

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partnership John 1 1 echoes the sentiment of this in the beginning was

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the word and the word was with God and the word was God. The creation story of

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Genesis 1 shows God creating a world of intricate interdependence. Light

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and water are needed to enable plants, birds, fish, and animals to flourish and

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all of those are necessary for the existence of human beings. The strata of

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existence are related to each other intimately needing each other. But I

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would go on to say that the Trinity, in the Trinity God shows that even

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themselves aren't outside of that call either. God 3 and 1 shows that even

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itself is interdependent. Unlike the gods that have been listed throughout

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history, come before in which one supreme God acts as a solitary deity,

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angry with others that are trying to vie for its position and often stands at

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odds with the others, this is not that. God is in oneness with itself on purpose.

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So God in God's oneness shows that even Yahweh is bound by the truth of

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interdependence. We see this so clearly and strikingly in Jesus's relationship

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with the Father during his time on earth. So even though God as Yahweh is not

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explicitly male, God is other. There are a number of references in scripture that

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use metaphors and similes that identify God with traits and capacities that are

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not strictly one or the other. A hen stretching out its wings for its chicks

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to gather under them in safety, laboring to bring forth the birth of something,

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these are metaphors and similes offered. But we gain further insight on the idea

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of the Trinity when we see God as Jesus understands God. And Jesus refers to God

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as Abba, as Father, Dad. And so as the New Testament Church understood the multiple

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facets of the one true God, they came to understand God as Jesus knew God. We come

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to know God through Jesus. So what do we learn about the Father because of the

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Father's unity and oneness with both the Son and the Spirit? In the Gospels, the

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Son is unwavering in his recognition that nothing is done without the express

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approval and partnership with the Father. Never once does Jesus do something

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without tying it to the Father. John 14 7 through 10, if you really know me you

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will know my Father as well. From now on you do know him and have seen him. Philip

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said, Lord show us the Father and that will be enough. And Jesus answered, don't

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you know me Philip? Even after I have been among you such a long time, anyone

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who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say show us the Father? Don't you

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believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to

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you I do not speak on my own authority rather it is the Father living in me who

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is doing his work. The baptism in the testimony of John the Baptist affirmed

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God's choice in Jesus through the witness of the Spirit. John 1 32, then

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John gave this testimony I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove

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and remain on him and I myself did not know him, this is John speaking, but the

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one who sent me to baptize with water told me the man on whom you see the

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Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I

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have seen and I testify that this is God's chosen one. Matthew 3 16 and 17 as

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soon as Jesus was baptized he went up out of the water and at that moment

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heaven was opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a

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lighting on him and a voice from heaven said this is my son whom I love with him

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I am well pleased. And for the entirety the full entirety of Jesus's ministry

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life on earth he did not move without the direction of the Father. He did not

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move without communion with the Father nor did he move without the public

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honoring and acknowledgement of the Father. John 5 16 through 17 the

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authority of the Son. So because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath

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people didn't like it the Jewish leaders began to persecute him in his defense

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Jesus said to them my father is always at work to this very day and I too am

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working. For this reason they tried all the more to kill him not only because he

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was he breaking the Sabbath but he was even calling God his own father making

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himself equal with God. Jesus gave them this answer very truly I say I tell you

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the son can do nothing by himself he can only do what he sees the Father doing

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because whatever the Father does the son does also for the father loves the son

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and shows him all he does. Jesus's life was lived in a way that reflected that

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God the Father not only loves us but has compassion towards us that he wants to

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restore us to wholeness that he wants to see the oppressor learn to lift others

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up that he wants to see us be generous and good to each other because he is

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generous and good to us and that God the Father wants to welcome us home with

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open arms and even the stories of condemnation and judgment that had been

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built up over time through a community a historic community that knew only a God

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that came to them through themselves not through the son were confronted in John

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8 when Jesus spoke to the woman who had been publicly stoned for being caught in

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adultery and Jesus had addressed her accusers where are your accusers didn't

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even one of them condemn you no Lord she said and Jesus said neither do I go and

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sin no more. John 3 16 for this is how God loved the world he gave his one and

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only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal

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life God sent his son to the world not to judge the world but to save the world

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through him we learn the truth of the father through the son we learn the love

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of the father through the son who knew the father we have come to learn about

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the father through what Jesus has told us and shown us it is a true vision of

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the father and if you are ever ever wondering what the truth of the father

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of God is the truth of God the father rather is look to Jesus and Jesus will

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tell you who he knows his father to be but we also come to learn about the

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father through what the spirit shows and ignites in us in the letters and the

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acts that are collected in the New Testament we learn more about God the

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father through the spirit John 14 26 says but the advocate the Holy Spirit

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whom the father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind

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you of everything I have said to you acts 1 5 for John baptized in water but

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in a few days you will be baptized by the Holy Spirit and a few days later

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just as promised acts 2 1 through 4 when the day of Pentecost came they were all

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together in one place and suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind

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came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting they saw

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what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of

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them all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other

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tongues as the spirit enabled them and so what do we learn about the father

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because of the spirit well we continue to grow in God's under in the

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understanding of God's love for us Romans 5 5 and this hope will not lead to

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disappointment for we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the

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Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love we also learn that God does not leave us

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you may not feel it it may not be evident in your daily life or in moments

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that you feel like you need it but you can know you can know you can know the

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spirit has come so that we may know that God desires us to never be desires that

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we would never be alone whether we are walking through the valley of the shadow

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or death or we are experiencing the most fulfilling depth of joy this world can

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offer God is with you because the spirit is always with us and that is evidence

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that God wants us to know that he does not want us to be alone John 14 16 and

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17 I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate to help you

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and to be with you forever the spirit of truth quite beautifully the infilling of

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the spirit in us will show evidence through fruit as outlined in Galatians

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522 but the fruit of the spirit is many of you know this love joy peace patience

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kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control against such

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things there is no law those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh

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with its passions and desires since we live by the spirit let us keep in step

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with the spirit what does this all up us about the father what does the spirit

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tell us about the father we recognize that these gifts are endowed to us

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because it is the father extending these things of himself to us that we might

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share in them we learn how the father gives us good things because God is

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generous to us we get to experience love because God is love and so the spirit

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gives us love and helps us act and serve and provide that for others we get to

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because of the spirit in us that tells us that God is a God of joy because God's

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joy is being shared with us God's kindness is being shared with us and as

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goodness is being shared with us because of the spirit we learn about the father

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because of what we have heard from the spirit and have been filled with by the

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spirit and we learn from the spirit that God is not silent but speaks to us there

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are so many accounts of the spirit speaking to those in the early church

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giving direction guidance affirmation where they needed it because they needed

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it the church was new they were just practicing these things that they were

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learning they were trying to understand how what what do we do where do we go

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from here and the spirit was with them the Holy Spirit said the Holy Spirit

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told me to go the spirit confirmed the Holy Spirit told me and what does this

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tell me what is the Holy Spirit tell me about God the Father is that he wants to

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speak to me and that he will when I need the guidance when I need direction it

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will be there and so when the spirit came it came to be a sustaining power

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for us for you more broadly the church the spirit came to show and do and be

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many things for us and in us but they all came from the Father and so if the

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spirit does it the Father is it the spirit came to comfort to teach to lead

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to correct to be a conduit of God's supernatural power when needed to empower

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the believers with certain gifts to regenerate our minds to convict our

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hearts and redirect them when we find that they are out of alignment with the

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love of God in this world we learn about the Father through the spirit and I I

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have focused on the Father but it's a little hard to figure that out because

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when you talk about the Trinity you can't just talk about one can you if

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they are in fact three and one you talk about the others but what I want to

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really focus on and have us remember today is that as you are walking through

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scripture as you are reading it I'm gonna say specifically right now for

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this sermon's purpose the New Testament and the the age of the church now that

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when you experience the spirit when you experience Jesus when you experience the

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spirit in the in scripture and when you read about Jesus in scripture and

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experience in your life what is it telling you about the Father because I

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think it's the things about the Father that we have gotten the most convoluted

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in our minds because we have heard we've believed stories that God is not for us

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but he's against us we've heard stories that God is here to judge you and not to

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love you that God is not here to welcome you that God is not here to like you

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we've believed these stories these stories have been built up over time

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haven't they and so if we listen to the words of Jesus and watch the life of

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Jesus what does Jesus tell you about the Father it's very different than those

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things isn't it what does the Spirit tell you about the Father what is the

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evidence of the what is the proof of the Father through the Spirit that's the

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true story because the Holy Spirit and Jesus commune with God they always have

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they always will you have been invited into that communion so that you may know

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the love of the Father the truth of the Father so that you may know the depth of

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the love that the Father has for you that he has not condemned you but he is

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he's asking you to come home he has brought you home the door is open

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there's a place prepared for you that is what we learn about the Father through

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the otherness of the Father and so when we look at Jesus when we look at the

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Spirit we do not look at them separately we do not think Jesus acts on his own we

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do not think that the Spirit acts on its own they act in oneness with the Father

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and so what do we learn about the Father what things need to be renewed in our

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minds about the Father we look to Jesus and the Spirit and we welcome or rather

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we accept the invitation of welcome into communion with them what a joy that we

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have that invitation we don't have to wonder we don't even have to look from

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the outside we get to be brought in we get to be brought into that when you ask

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a child how to describe their parent after the parent has disciplined them

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the version of the parent you're gonna get will be a bit fractured you might

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hear about the account somewhat correctly as far as the events go but

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you won't hear about the motivation of the parent quite properly and I say

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this cautiously hear me in the spirit of this message the Old Testament is a lot

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of accounting of how a people were experiencing and learning to be

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identified with the God that called them out what does it mean to be called gods

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they they wouldn't just know it right that's not intuitive it was new when God

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made his covenant with Abraham there was going to be a lot of growing pains a lot

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of toddling happening by a toddler that's learning that we don't just hit

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someone when we have big feelings right was learning the child is gonna tell

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perhaps a sincere but a skewed story of the account my wise friend Micah Pollock

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an outside viewer of Christianity while watching me learn about and know Jesus

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in our freshman year of high school said to me the words kind of mellowed out

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once Jesus came on the scene I've never forgot that phrasing I always loved it

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Jesus was introducing us to the father he knew and this and that the spirit

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knew the spirit was introducing to us to the father that they knew and that was

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gonna tell us a more complete story and give it context Jesus helped give some

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of that context to me and indeed they did and there has been some growth for

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the church and in the people of God and in the fullness of time that Kairos

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moment the matured and ready moment that Jesus came he came to tell us more about

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the father followed by the spirit who will lead us in all truth of the father

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and I will cry about this but I am overwhelmed with how cared for we are in

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this display how thoughtfully and lovingly we have brought been brought

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into the care and knowledge of the true father that we are not told to figure it

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out but that we have been led by loved love and equipped to also enter into

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oneness with God and also with each other which then allows me understand

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the father through you I understand the father through God's actions in you and

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through you through Jesus alive in you and through the spirit alive in you I

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learn about the father by how Jesus loves you and how the spirit works in

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your life I learn about the father and the truth of who he is because of oneness

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with community now because of Jesus that is an amazing amazing thing to be

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brought into and this is the hope that we have to share it's not to be hoarded

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as we learn and understand the depth of the father we offer it to others in full

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truth that is always the point so how do we understand the Trinity I don't know

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I'm not so sure we're supposed to it's mysterious God is other as I said God is

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other Western thinkers don't have an easy time not trying to nail something

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down I I welcome you to just enjoy the mystery of the of the fact that God is

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one with itself and has invited you into that and will do good work in you because

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of it and will do beautiful work in the world because of it the mystery is okay

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you don't have to figure it out to experience it but I will trust the

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invitation I've been given to enjoy the communion of it with the triune God and

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as it lives it's out itself out in us there are things about God I will not

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understand in this life however I am grateful for the words and life of Jesus

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and the leading and the wisdom and the empowering of the Holy Spirit to help me

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move forward in faithfulness believing that God not only loves me but invites

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me into wholeness with him and with others the hope is that it is possible

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that Jesus has taken care of everything that needed to be taken care of that the

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Holy Spirit will lead me and empower me as it needs to happen and that is the

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same for you that is an amazing thing let's pray

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Jesus help us hear the truth of the Father through you and specifically if

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there are things that have become skewed and even untruthful stories about God the

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Father in our minds in our hearts in our bodies would you help us see the truth

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of the Father through you by way of the Holy Spirit leading us in wisdom leading

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us in truth as we read your words and look at your life the way you lived it

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help us observe the absolute truth of the Father through you as you knew him

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let us do the same with the Spirit lead us into a better way a better way in the

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fullness of truth through oneness with the unity you have with yourself you are

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not divided within you are eternally one thank you for the invitation into

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experiencing that in you and with you and then as a church thank you for that

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that we can be one here as well because of your model of unity we look to you

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for all things and we thank you for your truth amen